Appreciation? Service? Heck, that went out with good old fashioned courtesy.

Maybe if everybody didn't hate each other...

goldilox, Very sad! It appears to be a thing of the past. Standing behind their product seems to be a thing of the past as well. Well, unless you hold their feet to the fire so to speak. Things have changed so much. It truly is sad, IMO! It has gotten to the point that I am so elated when I get good service, I ask their name, take note of the time, ask the name of their supervisor, phone number to call, then follow through with a compliment hoping this employee will get recognized for doing a good job.

yep ~ I do the same.

Last night we went to Pizzaville, imo they have the best pizza in town~ but have no personality or customer appreciation, not ONE employee (and there were 5 or 6) said HI, Thank You, Can I  help you, go to hell, nothing!   they stand there at the counter high n mighty,  I was the one that had to 'start a convo' so the guy would start writing down my order! same thing at the drink section.

but my biggest complaint this week is against the USPS Pegusus ~ recently our neighborhood mail boxes were destroyed and everything was stolen. jerks.

but - when we asked the postal clerk (as we were retrieving our mail for the 5th time @ the postal office)  "when do you think the new boxes will be installed?"  (normal question one would think)

she flipped out ! and blurted "do you think YOU'RE the only ones that have mailboxes broken intooooo??  It will be DONE when it's DONE!"

wowzers !  stuff like that blows me away!

That gal must have some enormous stress in her life! I would think an employee would be reprimanded for talking to a cutomer like that. I'm not sure I'd have handled that very well. Depending on my mood, that may have been a real learning experience for her.

i'm annoyed with kern schools lately.  first issue, a discrepancy between my monthly statement and the amount i wrote a check for (more was taken out of my account than the amount clearly written on the check).  took me several days going around and around with them and i was to the point where i asked for the paperwork to file a formal dispute before they would make the adjust ment for me.

i'm also annoyed with them because as of november 1st, my checking account will no longer be earning ANY interest.  upgrading to a checking account that actually earns me a buck or two in interest would charge me a service charge of $8

and the whole issue of selling the visa charge accounts to b of a has already been discussed on here.

i'm thinking about just keeping any money i might have under my mattress....

on the  other hand, i am pleasantly surprised with kaiser at the moment

the folks that work at both of the  jack n the box joints (on Rosedale and on Olive dr)  are so great (esp Olive drive one)

BUT - yesterday, i went thru the drive thur at the Rosedale one, by payless shoe store,  i bit into my 50cent taco and out came a longggggggggg blackkkkkkkkkk hairrrrrrrrrr

dangit

one more naughty thing i wont be able to stomach anymore. chalk that one up to my 'bad experience list'

Our local Post Office has great employees.  We (my husband and I) had been very impressed with their great cheerfulness and politeness and wrote to the Postmaster General of the USPS to tell him what great employees he had there, and that every effort should be made to be sure that they were appreciated. 

Too often workers are short-tempered -- especially those on lower tiers -- and I don't believe their jobs are quite as "safe" as they used to be.  That's why it's great to come across people in service positions who act as though they're actually glad to be of help. 

I think a lot of hourly employees are being overworked and underpaid because of the economy.  While grateful to have jobs, they're being worked to death by their employers for pitiful wages.  This is an especially difficult time not to have a proper career, or to be a minimum wage employee.  In an economy like this, I see a lot of hourly employees being taken advantage of in ways not thought possible during better economic times. 

That said, there is no excuse for poor/rude bahavior!

goldilix,

Before I went into the Navy (and left Btown), I worked a lot of retail part time jobs. I was really big on customer service and that made me a really popular guy with the customers. I sold shoes, Men's clothing, auto parts, bicycles, tires, you name it. I loved working retail because I had the opportunity to change a customer's attitude. I actually worked for Pep Boys five times. They always hired me back because of my attitude with the customers.The store manager gave permission to "Give Away the Store" if that's what it took to make things right with the customer. I can personally attest to the fact that whatever I gave away to please a customer, I got back in spades in return/repeat business from them.

I learned this from a guy named Bud Johnson. This attitude earned him a killing. A guy named Elmer Cleaver really appreciated my technique for pleasing a customer and was happy to allow me to be the fixer.
 

This was in the late 1970's and early 1980's and customer service was a rare thing then. It's really sad, but most people just can't seem to put themselves into the customer's shoes. It's been going on for a long time now. Unfortunately, most people who work face to face with the customer don't make a lot of money, so these jobs are filled with people from the bottom of the barrel, who just don't care.

When I worked part time selling tires, I wasn't eligible for monthly sales bonuses like the full time sales guys were. Rather than take a bad attitude, I learned to trade sales credit for good treatment from the full time sales guys. I got to the point where, even part time, I could have made top sales maybe three or four times a year. That means that I had enough sales to make or brake a full time sales guy............ Attitude is everything, and figuring things out goes a long way............

Leslies Pool Supplies on Stockdale and Coffee have the nicest folks working there. They are always very helpful and friendly. 

msemilyh, that Kern Schools checking account isn't earning any interest right now either since they slashed the interest rate to 0.005%, so don't bother with it until the rates go back up. I was talking with a friend earlier about how bad Kern Schools is becoming. Did you know that they aren't doing any mortgage modifications unless the member closes all other credit lines and loans they have with Kern Schools and waive their rights to open new lines of credit at Kern Schools for the lifetime of the mortgage? I'm not even sure that's legal under the Making Homes Affordable Act. My friend quipped that they're acting like they hired a bank exec from one of those failed banks.

ya, i've had accounts there for about 10 years, never had any problems.  there have been issues in the past: identity theft, check fraud, atm and credit card fraud, even a misplaced auto loan payment- their misplacement, not mine- and i've never had any problems getting issues resolved. 

i'm just very disappointed in them the past month or so.

i'm not quite ready to buy a house, but i have been saving up; was going to look into getting  a home with them; now  i'm not so sure...

Thanks, MiddlepathII, for acknowledging how employers take advantage of their few remaining workers.  Same amount of business crammed into fewer hours done by fewer staff at my workplace.   Quality of work is often mediocre at best now and we're completely knackered at the end of the day.  Most do the best we can, but you may not notice what we have to do just to pull that off.

There is no excuse for rudeness or bad service.

There are a few places with happy workers consistently cheerful and helpful and I admire them.  Rubio's at NW Promenade is one, Subway on 24th and F is another, Jack in the Box on Brundage and Union.

goldi, not only did you just kill my appetite for the day (thanks...I don't need to eat anyway) but I am forever soured on J in the B tacos now. (thanks again...those things will kill you!) Hair in my food is one of my "top five most disgusting things on earth" list. I am still getting chills! EEEEWWWWWWW!

i agree, once i have a personal-yucky-experience at a restaurant... all DONE !

I WORK AT AUTOZONE HERE IN PHOENIX AND WE ALWAYS GREET OUR CUSTOMERS WHEN THEY WALK IN THE DOOR AND ASK THEM WHAT THEY NEED AND HAND OUT OUR FLYERS WITH THE SPECIALS WE HAVE AND ALWAYS THANK THEM FOR SHOPPING AT AUTOZONE 

Phoenix? 

wow, i am always pleasently surprised when a comment is made from an out of towner, did you used to live here?

I will say I went to Autozone on Ming and even though they didn't have the part I needed, I got some very valuable advise from the person at the counter. I got good/great service there.

ya know who has really great customer service, with my visits - is rosedale RV on Downing.

I know Walmart is the big bad baddie on the blogs (and elsewhere) but as a former WM employee I can tell you that customer service is hard to dredge up when you have the rudest, most demanding, trash strewing, mdse destroying customers in town.  Like Tony I always prided myself on customer service but 3 years of WM put a dent in my enthusiasm. 

When you've dug french fries out from behind rows of tiny boxes only to have them all fall to the floor, when you mop up spilled liquids of all manner leaking from carts, when you've cleaned up half dried nail polish because someone broke a bottle and didn't tell an associate, when you've picked up dozens of packages behind a toddler in a basket while mommy shopped and, when asked to have her child not litter and be told "picking up after him is YOUR job," when you have two baskets FULL of 9 jillion tiny boxes of lipstick and eye liner etc to put up because people are complaining that the baskets are in their way and you have one lady on a Sunday morning demanding that you dig through ALL that stuff just to find one color she's looking for when you don't even know if it's in there at all...

Whew.  oh dear.  Where was I?  I seemed to have gotten carried away.  Were we talking about customer service or customer courtesy?   I forget.

(and that was all before lunch, let me tell you about closing.......)

i am (personally)  more interested in how  ME ME ME is treated personally on an individaul basis, not so much in a walmart type (costco, target, kohls, etc) huge store situation, i am immune to that - its busy and non-personable SHOP & leave, i hold nothing against employees in strip-malls, big-stores etc

OMG, that reminds me ~ last year we went to Brads in Pismo (by the pier)  HOLY moly!  i guess they were super busy (as usual) and a family/table before us was too-much-for-the-waitress-to-handle !

i dont know the details about that, BUT she was SO upset, that she FREAKED out on US too!  LOL, we had JUST sat down! by the time we had ordered hot chocolate for our kids, she was (seriously) THROWING the dishes against the brick walls ! LOL

we left immediately - went across trhe street and had a great meal ! LOL

goldilox:  I live in the Midwest.  Recently something has come up about the failure of some people to tip the people at the drive-through window. 

I must say I was a little surprised by this.  Never in my wildest dreams did I believe it was customary to tip at a drive-through.  Isn't that supposed to be the beauty of drive-through?  That there's no need to tip anybody?  Am I just living in some kind of time warp all of a sudden? 

Here all these years I've never tipped at a drive-through, and now there are drive-through employees who have begun griping about how many just like me there are. 

What's the story?

LOL  ~  there is NO way i would tip at a drive thru, i DO see the TIP containers at the drive thru for $tarBuck$

THAT cracks me up....hey~lets pay $5 for a cup of joe,and tip the chick that hands me the drink another $1 ~  no thanks!

ALICE ~ Again, it interests me that out-of-towners blog on the Bako site, did you used to live here?

goldilox:  First, I'm really "funny" about my name.  Truly, there's an "n" at the end of it.  And I'd be pleased to address you any way you'd prefer.  Just let me know. 

Second,  I was just curious.  I'd never heard of tipping at a drive-through, and if there's a tip box, I've never seen one.  What are you supposed to do, just hand it to them?  (Never!)

Third, a friend of mine introduced me to the blog sometime ago.  And while he doesn't blog as often as he used to, I've grown accustomed to the mix of people on TBC, and I've made some friends.  There are a lot of really nice people here.  So I keep hanging around.  It also gives me a glimpse of life in another part of the country. That's always interesting.  (Thanks for asking.)

Tipping is for a service.  At a BBQ place in Cambria you walk up to the counter, order your food from a register puncher, wait for your number to be called, go up and pick up your food, cutlery, napkins etc and go sit at a dirty table you have to clear off yourself (very busy place) and they have a tip jar by the register.  My thoughts?  You've GOT to be kidding.  I don't tip  for pushing keys on a register and setting my Styrofoam plate on a counter.

edit..and it's CASH only..no plastic so you aren't likely to accidently tip them..bad on their part huh?

YEA I.AM FROM BAKERSFIELD AND I HAVE BEEN IN RETAIL FOR MOST OF MY LIFE I KNOW WHAT IT IS LIKE TO HAVE CUSTOMERS COME IN OUT OF THE 115 DEGREE HEAT WITH A CAR PROBLEM YEA THEY HAVE A ATTITUDE I WOULD TOO BUT OUR JOB IS TO MAKE THEM SETTLE DOWN AND BE COOL AND LEAVE HAPPY WITH ALL THE PARTS THEY NEED